After all these years I used the AA breakdown insurance

[Powertrain]

I have taken out AA breakdown insurance for every European trip over many years and never had cause to use it - until two weeks ago in central France.
An incompetent or deliberately negligent 20,000 mile service late last year had obviously not checked the condition of the van's rear (hand-brake) brake shoes.
4000 miles later one of the badly worn shoes broke up and intermittently jammed the wheel which made a very nasty noise! We managed to get to the campsite in Santenay near Beaune and phoned the AA breakdown number via O2 mobile phone.
Calm, efficient English speaking help arranged for a 'Peugeot Assistance' breakdown truck to arrive within 2 hours.
A very helpful mechanic diagnosed (correctly) the problem but his garage in Beaune could not deal with the repair for over 7 days!! He found the number of the local garage (renault) and they agreed to deal with us - we followed the truck to the garage where we were left.
Both rear brakes were completely worn out - the van is second hand so I don't know its history and I wonder if the strange mode of lining failure might have been caused by poor winter storage (wet/freezing cycle) or just bad adjustment.
My wife's French - excellent for food and directions etc failed at this point so I ran the AA number again and they acted as technical assistant but right at the critical point my O2 'pay and go' credit ran out and cut us off.
Our van was repaired the following day but the bill came to £504 at present exchange rate!! To be fair this was the price quoted but one does not have too much choice. Given that the price of the spares is in the UK is £100 the labour charges were horrible but the bill only listed 80 Euros, so either prices of spares in France is x5 those in the UK or I have been rooked.
In spite of all this argo the service and support given by the AA breakdown service was excellent and I will continue to use it - and I will more carefully chose my service garage. As for mobile phone use in an emergency, I will never trust them again

 

[vwalan]

hi, difficult to say about th garage it as done 4,000ml . and if peeped at through an inspection hole it may have shown good meat on the shoe .i take it the linings cracked and fell off the shoe . does seem alot of money for fitting new shoes. good job you had AA breakdown . might have been cheaper just to have driven to a local garage and said fix it. its always a bother when going away . i,m glad i can look at my own. but things happen. i could say hardly a year goes by when some one on our winter trip doesnt have a breakdown. and sometimes you just cant work out why things go wrong when away . good job its fixed , have fun sorry to here your tale . cheers alan.

 

[Byronic]

On the face of it, it does look like you've been rooked to the tune of roughly £300 but if the invoice isn't fully itemised, you can't know for certain. It may be that they had to skim a scored drum and/or replaced a damaged brake cylinder etc and they just didn't bother itemising the work.
At least you had AA assistance so not all bad. Mechanical breakdown is second only to health scares in the worry tally when travelling overseas IMHO.

 

[AndyC]

As for mobile phone use in an emergency, I will never trust them again

The moral is, if you take a PAYG mobile phone for 'emergency use' make sure you have enough credit on it!

AndyC

 

[Rostra]

PAYG Mobile phone

I use these all the time - here and abroad, as they are only ever for emergencies and I travel a lot. You can set them up to top up from your credit card, any time, anywhere. Saved my bacon a few times. You just have to remember to make a call at least once within every 6 month period or they think you've lost the phone.